攀登 of Fire Bug as Tick

Just wow, so much fun from start to finish!

A cold and windy bug

The team arrived at fuck knows o'clock and i headed up to the worlds least inspiring looking tat to belay the double pitch for steve, who then pointed out the dbb off to the left. Steve went on windbreak for the money pitch. Said it was tough for 17.. i reasoned with him that this route was fa'd by the guy who made the grades and therefore must be entirely accurate. Turns out 'grade inflation': a phenomenon by which climbers just arent as fkn hard these days, explains the fact that the overhung corner sequence felt closer to 19. The misunderstanding of the day took place on this pitch where I was hacking at a cam mid crux that i thought steve overcammed, couldnt get it, shouted down to chris and ciaran to have a go. Both of them dedicated some solid time and ciaran eventually freed it with a fight that cost him much hand skin. He pulled it triumphantly from his harness at the end of the route and held it out to steve. Steve didnt recognise it. Turns out some other party got it stuck. Now ciaran owns 1 beat up cam that he can use as a nut sometime! Steve and I spent about an hour and 15 sitting in the overhung scoop belay cave up top just having yarns about anything that came to mind.. what a unique and incredible geological feature with full valley view and shade! Barramundi and beer back at the house after, good shout there

don't be discouraged by some of the comments below. It is a pretty good and very safe climb with reasonable rock quality and good gear. It's best to belay on the ledge above the bird poo as the description suggest - plenty of gear options. Grade wise the crux moves are consistent with other Bluyes trad 17s with rest of the climb being easier, just don't approach it with a 'sport grade 17 leader' mindset. Watch rope drag if combining last two pitches.

Awesome day out, definitely a blueys classic, linked pitch 1 & 2 drag wasnt too bad. Pitch 3 is ever so slightly harder than 1&2, mostly because the rock quality on pitch 3 is questionable

After climbing stellar lines at the grade both at Araps and Mt Buffalo, this route is possibly the crappiest, undergraded most horrendous, thrutchy sandbagged grade 17 I've done in my entire climbing career. The rock in many places is choss, alot of the gear is crap, the suggestion of moving the belay up by 2m at the end of pitch 2 would be great if it actually had good gear, pitch 3 could be graded 20 and I wouldn't bat an eye. My personal opinion? Zero stars. Think I'll stick to bolted lines in the Blueys as it seems many trad lines here are complete choss piles compared with other beautiful Trad climbing areas. 2 hours of my life I'll never get back.

One of the best. Classic trad climb with it all. Boulder problem start, squeeze chimney, long crack, and steep corner crux. Linked the pitches. Halfway belay ledge has plenty of decent gear for the belay right underneath the crux corner. Witnessed my brother charge up the crux ignoring the critical rest jug (cough, right, cough cough).

Top abseil point was a nightmare. Walk off seems like a much better option. But I got to practice my prusiking skills.

mega route for the grade. A few tough moments and fun exposure but got through it after trusting my jams. Definitely go to the highest point of the cave for the belay and don't spend 30 minutes struggling with cordalette a bit lower down :p

man what cool climb! pitch 3 is one of the funnest pitches ive lead at the grade. the belay ledges for pitch 1 and 3 are fairly average, and having spent a fair bit of time at them in a party of 3, would probs link 1+2 and 3+4 if i did it again

Decent climbing - really enjoyed the slabby face of P2 and the overhanging corner on P3. Some nice belay spots.

Awesome climb! Woodie lead it in 2 pitches. I sat at one point to try and extract a booty cam.

Engaging climbing in an incredible position! P1 belay was a bit crowded with 3 people, but doable. Split P3 into 2 pitches, climbing above the block and belaying from there to cut down on rope drag. Finished well in the dark due to some people abseiling in and jumping on P3 ahead of us us... Not super ideal, but thankfully we all had headlamps!

Classic corner crack. Doesn't get much better than this.

Took a rest in the chimney on P1 after taking too long to figure out the sequence.

Funny how fate works, lost the 'roshambo' compelling me to lead pitches 1 and 2. It was like the climbing gods wanted me to lead the chimney, the style I have a 40% love and 60% hate relationship with.

Pitch 1: Intense, bouldery and unprotected but not too hard of a first move has one questioning what will the mystified 'crux' 50m higher up behold. Thructched up the chimney, my knees and back bracing the last of self belief I had. After somehow making it out of that coffin, climbing gets easier and involves stemming to mental recovery.

Pitch 2 linked with P1: "O boy another roof"(more like bulge). One committing layback, followed by some graceful stemming(?) and the rest is history. I have never been so happy in my life after stumbling upon a pile of shit (birds'). Made a belay at the most comfy belay ledge(with a view) ever.

Pitch 3 (surely the crux): Time to watch my partner struggle and give him words of false hope and even falser wisdom. As second, it wasn't too bad; a couple of hand jams, a couple of don't jams and use those big hold moments, finger locks and a get me out of here FIST JAM. So glad I wasn't the one on the sharp end or was I? Belay is in the meditative cave.

Pitch 4: Big smiles while traversing left on even bigger ironstone bands. Belay carrots at the top.

PS This climb was first done in volleys with hemp rope tied around the waist, a few machine nuts and metal hexes as protection. After doing this climb, if you feel like you deserve an ice cream, you probably do. But remember those tough lads and this tough climb also deserves our utter respect.

Seconded this one behind Matty for my first trad multi. Linked pitches 1 & 2 and 3 & 4

Firebug is awesome! Climbed this one as a client for Hughs multi pitch climbing guide assessment. Hugh led the entire climb whilst Marty and I chilled on the 2nd. The crux is quite tricky if you try and just use the crack. I tried this then fell off! Haha. Much easier if you get a high right hand on the flake to the right of the corner!

My partner led it in a single pitch and reached the cave just before it started pouring. Leaving me (already very worn out) to second in very wet conditions. I suffered.

Lous led P1